The Evolving Role of Procurement in Delivering Organisational Value

In this episode of Procurement Reimagined, Canda Rozier, Co-Founder of Collaborative Consulting, joins Daniel to share her insights on the evolving role of procurement within organisations and how procurement can find new avenues to drive value within the company. Daniel also shares tips on empowering small procurement teams to handle a broader scope of operation.

Canda has over twenty-five years of experience leading mid-tier to global procurement teams. Apart from procurement, she has also handled sourcing and real estate departments across different companies. She has also co-founded Collaborative Consulting, a sourcing consultancy business. Canda is also an active speaker at industry events and is passionate about writing and creating content.

Key highlights:

• 03:24 -04:49 -  Procurement Trends for 2023 - The biggest challenge will be the economy's direction, which is headed for a downturn from current trends. In this scenario, companies will look to tighten their belts, and the expectations from procurement will rise. There will be ongoing pressure to drive savings through renegotiating contracts and changing payment terms. Companies will want to achieve cost reduction while trying to maintain growth.
•  05:43 - 07:49 - Evolving Role of Procurement in Driving Organisational Value - The Pandemic changed how companies viewed procurement. Thanks to a transition to WFM, procurement was involved in products and solutions that enabled a work-from-home environment. That was the first step in broadening procurements' role. Simultaneously, companies transitioned functions like risk management and governance to procurement to drive added efficiencies. 
• 09:46 - 12:35 - How can a Small Procurement Teams Handle the Enhanced Role - Canda’s tongue-in-cheek response is that there are two answers, the realistic and the aspirational. The realistic one says that teams struggle when managing a wider range of functions and often wind up trying to hit the high points by doing a deeper analysis of the items. The aspirational answer pivots around quantifying and documenting the value of each proposition and then presenting a business case for each solution that identifies those that drive value and those that don’t. Procurement leaders need to empower their teams with technology solutions that allow the teams to work faster, smarter, and more efficiently. The leaders must keep a close watch on emerging technologies that can perform various procurement functions. The best thing is that these solutions and cost-effective and easy to implement. 
• 16:58 - 19:07 - Integrating Technology in Procurement - Canda’s insight on integrating technology starts by looking at the problem and not jumping straight to the solution. Start by identifying the pain points for the business and then think of how these can be resolved, as some issues could get resolved through a process change and hence, not require technology. Identify the underlying ‘as is’ cause of the problem and fix the processes first. Applying a technology patch on a workflow with broken processes will give you a solution that automates broken processes. Once this analysis is complete, only then go out and look for the solution that best meets your needs.

Quotes

• “Procurement leaders need to embrace technology as a way to deliver more with less”.
• “The transition to managing risk and governance is a big evolution step for our profession”. 
• “Don’t get enamoured by the new shiny solution on the market; sometimes what you need is practical, easy to use, and robust solutions”.